How much does German transcription cost?

From €2 per audio hour on the Professional plan: €40 a month for 20 hours, VAT included, with enhanced accuracy and a priority queue. The Creative plan is €15 for 5 hours a month. If you only transcribe now and then, pay as you go at €9 per audio hour with no subscription; those credits never expire. Human transcription agencies typically charge about $1–4 per audio minute.

How long does German transcription take?

Usually a few minutes. A typical file is ready in under 3 minutes, and recordings of several hours take a little longer. A transcription agency usually needs 24 hours to several days.

Is the transcription done by people or by AI?

By AI. Scribewave is an AI transcription service: speech recognition writes the transcript, and you review it in the editor, where every word is linked to the audio. Scribewave does not offer human transcription, so if a person has to check or certify the transcript, use a transcription agency.

Can you transcribe German and translate it into English?

Yes. Transcribe your German recording, then translate the transcript into English or any of 99 languages in the same editor. The translation keeps the original timestamps, so you can export it as a document or as subtitles.

Is my audio kept private?

Yes. Files are stored and processed on European servers, Scribewave is GDPR compliant, and your audio is never used to train AI models. You can delete your files at any time.

Does Scribewave handle Austrian and Swiss German?

Scribewave transcribes Standard German spoken with an Austrian or Swiss accent. It has no dedicated model for Swiss German dialect (Schweizerdeutsch), so dialect recordings contain more errors and need more correction. Try a short file first to see how it handles your speakers.

German transcription service

Upload your German audio or video and get an editable transcript in minutes, from €2 per audio hour on the Professional plan or €9 pay as you go. No waiting days for an agency. Try it free with your own file: no credit card, files up to 200 MB.

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Der Nachrichtensprecher sagte Bundeskanzlerin in seiner Ansprache.

Die Studie über Klimawandel wurde veröffentlicht.

Das Interview mit Angela Merkel war sehr informativ.

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Save time

Analysis

Supports all audio and video formats

Support for large and long files

MP3, MP4, WAV, FLAC, MOV, AVI, MKV, and more

Advanced privacy

GDPR compliant, control over your data

Contrary to free alternatives, we don't use your data for training or debugging

Lightning fast

1 hour of audio in 5 minutes

The best trade-off between speed and accuracy

We work with your tools

Integrates with all major text and video editors

Export to Word, Google Docs, srt and much more

The most complete speech-to-text solution

High-quality transcription in multiple languages

Supports 99 languages and accents

AI transcription or a transcription agency?

Scribewave is an AI transcription service, not a human agency. You upload your German recording, speech recognition writes the transcript in minutes, and you check it in an editor that plays the audio along with every word. A transcription agency sends your file to a professional transcriber instead. Here is how the two compare.

Scribewave AI transcription compared with a human transcription agency for German audio
	Scribewave (AI)	Transcription agency
Price	From €2 per audio hour on Professional (€40 a month for 20 hours), or €9 pay as you go (incl. VAT)	About $1–4 per audio minute, or $60–240 per hour
Turnaround	Minutes: a typical file is ready in under 3 minutes	24 hours to several days
Who checks the text	You, in the synced editor	A professional transcriber
Privacy	Processed on European servers (GDPR), never used to train AI	A person listens to your recording; terms vary by agency
Certified transcripts	Not available	Often available

Choose an agency when a person has to stand behind the transcript: certified transcripts for court, legal verbatim records or official documents. For interviews, meetings, research, podcasts and subtitles, AI with a quick review of your own is faster and costs a fraction of the price.

What you get with every German transcript

Your transcript is ready to edit as soon as it is done, and it comes with:

Speaker labels, so you can see who said what
Timestamps that take you to that moment in the recording
A synced editor: every word is linked to the audio, so corrections go quickly
Exports to Word, Google Docs, TXT and SRT or VTT subtitles
Translation of the transcript into 99 languages, including English
Custom vocabulary for names and jargon on the Enterprise plan

Credits never expire, so you can buy hours once and use them whenever the next recording comes in.

German accents and regions

Scribewave transcribes Standard German as it is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including regional accents. There is no dedicated model for Swiss German (Schweizerdeutsch) or other strong dialects, so recordings in dialect contain more errors and need more correction in the editor. People talking over each other and noisy recordings also lead to more errors. Try a short file first to see how it handles your speakers.

What people transcribe

Researchers, journalists, production teams and businesses use Scribewave for German recordings such as:

Interviews: Research interviews, journalism and client calls, with each speaker labeled.
Meetings: Business meetings and team discussions, with timestamps to find each decision.
Podcasts and videos: Transcripts and subtitles that make podcasts and YouTube videos accessible and searchable.
Lectures and conferences: Lectures, presentations and conference talks, ready to quote or summarize.

More than 30,000 users

More than 30,000 users turn their recordings into text with Scribewave, including the Flemish public broadcaster.

From €2 per audio hour on the Professional plan (20 hours for €40 a month), or €9 pay as you go with credits that never expire
A transcript in minutes, not days
Speaker labels, timestamps and a synced editor
Exports to Word, Google Docs and subtitles
European servers, GDPR compliant, never used to train AI

Number of German speakers worldwide: 132 million
German is the most spoken native language in Europe: No. 1 in Europe
German belongs to the West Germanic language family: West Germanic

While doing qualitative research, I noticed that the transcription and translation process was very time-consuming. Existing tools did not offer the quality I was looking for in smaller languages like Dutch. So I created Scribewave with the goal of making transcription and translation more accessible and affordable for everyone.

Ulysse Maes

Founder, at Cannes Film Festival 2024

German transcription: frequently asked questions

: From €2 per audio hour on the Professional plan: €40 a month for 20 hours, VAT included, with enhanced accuracy and a priority queue. The Creative plan is €15 for 5 hours a month. If you only transcribe now and then, pay as you go at €9 per audio hour with no subscription; those credits never expire. Human transcription agencies typically charge about $1–4 per audio minute.
: Usually a few minutes. A typical file is ready in under 3 minutes, and recordings of several hours take a little longer. A transcription agency usually needs 24 hours to several days.
: By AI. Scribewave is an AI transcription service: speech recognition writes the transcript, and you review it in the editor, where every word is linked to the audio. Scribewave does not offer human transcription, so if a person has to check or certify the transcript, use a transcription agency.
: Yes. Transcribe your German recording, then translate the transcript into English or any of 99 languages in the same editor. The translation keeps the original timestamps, so you can export it as a document or as subtitles.
: Yes. Files are stored and processed on European servers, Scribewave is GDPR compliant, and your audio is never used to train AI models. You can delete your files at any time.
: Scribewave transcribes Standard German spoken with an Austrian or Swiss accent. It has no dedicated model for Swiss German dialect (Schweizerdeutsch), so dialect recordings contain more errors and need more correction. Try a short file first to see how it handles your speakers.

Accuracy

Editing

Languages